A new method of performing surgery to reduce the number of migraines a person suffers can also improve everyday function and ability to cope.

A new method of performing surgery to reduce the number of migraines a person suffers can also improve everyday function and ability to cope, according to a new study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

"The results show that migraine surgery can lead to dramatic improvements in functioning and coping ability, even in patients who are very disabled before surgery," co-author and American Society of Plastic Surgeons member William Gerald Austen told Science Daily.

Migraine surgeries — developed from the realization that cosmetic forehead-lift procedures gave some relief to headache sufferers — were conducted by Dr. Austen on 90 patients between 2013 and 2015 and both before and after surgery, each patient filled out a Paine Self Efficacy Questionnaire and a standard migraine survey. From that group, 74 completed both forms at a one-year follow-up appointment.

Before surgery, patients reported "extremely poor" PSEQ scores and very low coping scores — signs of high-level disability. But one year removed from surgery, those same patients' new questionnaires showed, on average, a 112% higher (less painful, more easily dealt with) PSEQ scores.

"It seems that migraine surgery patients can recover function and ability to cope with pain very well after surgery," Dr. Austen and his coauthors wrote in the study.